Various abbreviations that may appear in the specification and/or in the drawing figures are defined as follows:
3GPP third generation partnership project
BCCH broadcast control channel
BCH broadcast channel
BW bandwidth
DL downlink (eNB towards UE)
eNB EUTRAN Node B (evolved Node B)
EUTRAN evolved UTRAN (LTE)
FSU flexible spectrum use
ID identification
IMT international mobile telecommunications
IMT-A advanced IMT
LTE long term evolution
LTE-A LTE advanced
MIB master information block
Node B base station
OFDM orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
OFDMA orthogonal frequency division multiple access
P-BCH physical broadcast channel
PDCCH physical downlink control channel
PRB physical resource block
P-SCH primary synchronization channel
RSSI carrier received signal strength indicator
SC-FDMA single carrier, frequency division multiple access
SCH synchronization channel
S-SCH secondary synchronization channel
UE user equipment
UL uplink (UE towards eNB)
UTRAN universal terrestrial radio access network
WG working group
A proposed communication system known as evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN, also referred to as UTRAN-LTE or as E-UTRA) is currently being finalized within the 3GPP. As currently specified the DL access technique will be OFDMA, and the UL access technique will be SC-FDMA.
One specification of interest is 3GPP TS 36.300, V8.3.0 (2007-12), 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network (E-UTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2 (Release 8), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This system may be referred to for convenience as LTE Rel-8, or simply as Rel-8. Note that this is a stage 2 specification, and may not exactly describe the system as it is currently implemented. In general, the set of specifications given as 3GPP TS 36.xyz (e.g., 36.311, 36.312, etc.) may be seen as describing the entire Release 8 LTE system.
Of particular interest herein are the further releases of 3GPP LTE targeted towards future IMT-A systems, referred to herein for convenience simply as LTE-Advanced (LTE-A). Of additional interest herein are local area (LA) deployment scenarios using a scalable bandwidth (of up to, for example, 100 MHz) with flexible spectrum use (FSU). This system concept may be referred to herein for convenience as LTE-A.
It has been decided that LTE Rel-8 UEs should be able to operate in the LTE-A system. General reference in this regard may be made to 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting #53, Kansas City, USA, May 5-9, 2008, R1-081948, Proposals for LTE-Advanced Technologies, NTT DoCoMo, Inc, attached as Exhibit A to the priority document U.S. provisional patent application 61/131,042 (filed Jun. 4, 2008).
Reference can also be made to 3GPP TR 36.913, V0.0.6 (2008-05), 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Requirements for Further Advancements for E-UTRA (LTE-Advanced) (Release X), attached as Exhibit B to the priority document.
Other publications that may be interest herein include RP-080137, Proposed SID on LTE-Advanced, NTT DoCoMo, 3GPP RAN#39, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 4-7 Mar. 2008, attached as Exhibit C to the priority document, and R3-080812, Solution(s) to the 36.902's Automated Configuration of Physical Cell Identity Use Case, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Shenzen, China, April 2008, attached as Exhibit D to the priority document.
More specifically, there is growing interest in the cellular industry for IMT-Advanced capabilities following the approval of the Study Item description on LTE-Advanced as in RP-080137. It is foreseen that IMT-Advanced requirements (that LTE-Advanced should fulfill) will include bandwidth support (optionally) up to 100 MHz, and potentially peak data rates up to, for example, 1 Gbps (billion bits per second) for LA scenarios. As current IMT spectrum allocations do not enable multiple operators to have such high bandwidth allocations within the same band, FSU mechanisms are being examined in LTE-Advanced.
Further, it is also clear that particularly in the LA scenario there is a requirement that the Node Bs can be deployed in an uncoordinated manner (i.e., without planning the locations and configuring each individual Node B separately) without causing severe interference to neighboring cells.